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Like thousands of people, Dave Smith became infected with coronavirus at the start of the first wave in the UK in 2020. But while most people, including those who suffer “long Covid”, eliminate the live virus from their bodies within a couple of weeks, Smith experienced a very different sort of long-term problem: a persistent infection lasting more than 290 days, or almost 10 months. This has been the longest recorded active Covid-19 infection to date, the Guardian reports.

During that period, Smith, 72, from Bristol, recorded 42 positive PCR tests and was admitted to hospital seven times. He said: “Whenever I went bad, I went really bad – down to death’s door. My wife started to arrange a funeral five times.”

In an interview in which he revealed his harrowing and rare experience for the first time, he added jokingly: “I called all the family in to make my peace with them. I wish I’d kept my mouth shut now.”

Smith, a retired driving instructor, was eventually cured with the same antibody cocktail developed by Regeneron that was used to treat Donald Trump. It contains two antibodies, casirivimab, and imdevimab, which bind to different sites on the coronavirus spike protein, blocking it from infecting new cells.

Smith was granted access to the drug through a “compassionate use” programme, whereby an unauthorised therapy can be given if no other satisfactory approved treatment exists. However the drug is no longer available on this basis, and is not yet clinically approved for use in the UK.

His doctors are now calling for improved access to such treatments for other patients like him, to alleviate their suffering and because of a theoretical risk of new variants evolving during the course of their infections.